Winning Streak Snapped in Detroit With 3-2 OT Loss

DETROIT - The Rangers were bitten by an all-too-familiar bug on Friday night: the late goal against. This time, they couldn't overcome it.
The Red Wings scored twice in the third period to tie, then again in the final seconds of overtime to defeat the Rangers, 3-2, on Friday night at Little Caesar's Arena, snapping the Blueshirts' winning streak at four games. It was the fourth straight road game in which the Rangers have surrendered either the tying or go-ahead goal in the late stages of the regulation, but while in the last two they were able to regroup and grab the two points, on this night the win slipped away.
Andreas Athanasiou tied the score with 2:02 left in regulation, and Dylan Larkin won it for the Red Wings with 5.1 seconds to play in overtime, sending the Rangers to their first loss in the month of November.
Still, the Rangers did enough early and late to grab one point from this night, scoring on both ends of a double minor late in the second and killing a penalty in the last two minutes of a tie game. But no one in the visitors' dressing room was in a mood to celebrate that.

"It's just frustrating the way it happened," said Henrik Lundqvist, who made 28 saves. "We had pretty good control, but we gave them some opportunities to win the game."
"This one hurts."
The Rangers got a pair of power-play goals from defensemen, with Kevin Shattenkirk scoring his first of the season and Neal Pionk connecting for the third consecutive game. Tony DeAngelo, Vlad Namestnikov, Mika Zibanejad and Kevin Hayes each had assists, with Hayes picking up his fourth point in the last two games.

It was enough to grab a point in the standings, but not a pair. Asked what was most upsetting to him about the loss, David Quinn said, "Just how we wilted. You think we've learned lessons so far. We just cheated the game. When you cheat the game with a 2-0 lead you get that result. We're going learn a lesson."
"We got what we deserved," the coach added.
Through 40 minutes, it seemed the Rangers would deserve much better. The goaltenders - Lundqvist and Jimmy Howard (29 saves) - did what they normally do when they face one another, which is to dominate the game. But after nearly 37 scoreless minutes had been played, Detroit's Jacob De La Rose was hit with a double minor for high-sticking Hayes, and the Rangers cashed it in twice. Shattenkirk supplied the breakthrough when he took DeAngelo's D-to-D pass, walked in from the left point and wired a wrister upstairs. Pionk doubled the lead with a shot from the blue line that clipped Darren Helm's skate on its way past Howard.
The goal was originally credited to Chris Kreider, who was creating havoc in front, but was later corrected to belong to Pionk - the blueliner's fourth NHL goal, three of which have come in each of the last three games.

Marc Staal said that in the Rangers' room at second intermission, "our expectations going into the third were high, the way we needed to play that period. It's frustrating that we didn't see the results of that confidence going into the period."
Gustav Nyquist started the Red Wings' rally by stealing a puck from Brendan Smith beside the Rangers' net, then feeding an onrushing Justin Abdelkader to halve the Ranger lead at 1:46.
"Their first goal changes everything, just changes everything," Quinn said. "Momentum changes, and we're on our heels a little bit."
"It gets the crowd into it, all of a sudden they're within one shot, and we're just trying to hang on and not get burnt by one," Staal said. "We weren't playing with enough confidence with the puck, we weren't pressuring them enough, and that's the result."
Still, the Rangers were playing with the lead as the clock approached two minutes, when Athanasiou came flying down the left wing to take a pass from Frans Nielsen, cut to the front and tuck it in on the backhand with 2:02 remaining.
Quinn saw a disappointing similarity to the goal the Rangers allowed to Alec Martinez in the final minute against the Kings on Oct. 28. "It's exactly what happened in L.A.," the coach said. "We come on the ice, we stand around in the neutral zone, and they walk up the ice."
After the Rangers killed off a slashing minor to Pavel Buchnevich to secure their point, the game appeared headed for the Rangers' fourth shootout of the season until the Red Wings made one final attack in the 3-on-3 overtime. Athanasiou carried the puck over the Ranger line, and threw a pass onto the blade of a cutting Larkin, who tipped it home with 5.1 seconds to play.
"Obviously they pushed, they played their best in the third, we played our best in the first two," Lundqvist said. "Then in the overtime, I thought we had it under control, we just let them come back one more time."
In spite of the loss, the Rangers have earned points in each of their last five games (4-0-1), and will close out their road back-to-back on Saturday night in Columbus.
"Quick turnaround tomorrow," Staal said. "We'll be ready to play."
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